With no choice but to walk through the Eric Frein search zone, local man risks being shot.

Five weeks into the search for Eric Frein, Canadensis resident James Tully knows the drill. Stop when a police officer approaches. Show identification. Be cooperative.

Tully, 39, doesn't own a car and must walk five miles along heavily wooded Route 447 — directly through the search area — twice each day on his way to and from his second-shift job at a metal fabrication plant.

He said he's been stopped more than 20 times by officers who thought he might be Frein, the self-styled survivalist and expert marksman suspected of shooting two state police troopers, killing one. In fact, Tully said, he was stopped seven times in one day.

An encounter last week, which Tully said left him shaking with fear after a gun was pointed in his face, mirrors the frustration of a community caught in the middle of the police manhunt for Frein, a search now in its second month.

Residents live daily with the fear that a man whom police describe as an armed and dangerous murderer might be in their midst, a man who has managed to elude capture despite an unprecedented number of law enforcement officers on his trail.

After staying open Monday following another reported sighting of trooper-slaying suspect Eric Frein, Pocono Mountain School District closed Tuesday.

After staying open Monday following another reported sighting of trooper-slaying suspect Eric Frein, Pocono Mountain School District closed Tuesday.

"I haven't had a good night's sleep since this whole thing started," Tully said. "I don't have a choice; I have to walk through here. I can't miss work. I can't afford it."

He said most of the encounters he's had with police on his way to and from work have ended peacefully, with an officer looking over his identification and sending him on his way with a warning to be careful.

That changed Thursday night, he said, when a man dressed in camouflage jumped out of a silver sport utility vehicle and pointed a rifle at his head.

"I had my ID out, but he just kept yelling at me 'Get on the ground, get on the ground!' I was scared. I just thought to myself: Just let me live through this," Tully said.

As I write this on Tuesday morning, I am listening to police broadcasts from Monroe County, where fugitive Eric Frein has been spotted, more or less simultaneously, in two locations at some remove from one another in Paradise Township. He is either near a house on Sunset Drive or rummaging through...

(Daniel Patrick Sheehan)

He said he tried to show the man his work identification and driver's license, which he wears on a lanyard around his neck, but the man with the gun kept shouting. Tully claims the man used a knee to hold him on the ground, and said it seemed as if his spine were breaking.

Tully said he was too stunned to ask the man to identify himself, but believes he was a law enforcement officer of some kind because a uniformed state trooper intervened, telling the man that Tully was a local.

He said the incident sent him to a hospital emergency room with severely bruised ribs, and has added to the daily stress of living in the search area.

State police spokeswoman Connie Devens said she was unaware of the incident, noting that Tully had not filed a complaint with state police.

Tully said his family and friends have urged him to contact an attorney, but what he mostly wants is an apology.

His trek to work takes about two hours each way. Walking home alone at night was already scary, Tully said. Unlike some of the bounty hunters who've flocked to the Poconos hoping to claim the $175,000 FBI reward, he's just hoping he doesn't meet up with Frein in the woods.

"What would I do? I would try to hide, try to avoid being seen by him. I would definitely notify police if I did see him," Tully said.

Frein, 31, of Canadensis, remained at large Tuesday despite the massive police presence in the Poconos and the bounty on his head. The Pocono Mountain School District closed Tuesday as a flurry of police activity descended on Swiftwater, slightly south of the initial search area. Police reported no confirmed sightings of Frein.

Frein is suspected of killing Cpl. Bryon Dickson, 38, and wounding Trooper Alex Douglass, 31, on Sept. 12 at the Blooming Grove state police barracks in Pike County. Douglass is recovering at a rehabilitation facility after being released from a Scranton hospital last week.

Police have not publicly identified a motive for the ambush-style shooting, but say Frein has a long-standing grudge against law enforcement.

Tully said he and his neighbors are growing weary of the seemingly endless manhunt and are starting to lose confidence in police. He believes that some of the so-called "credible sightings" police cite in their reasons for staying in the area are prompted by false tips called in by people sympathetic to Frein to "throw off" the hunt.

Tully also said he couldn't understand why police keep looking at him as the possible suspect, when he's just 5 feet 8 inches tall and Frein is 6 feet 1 inch tall.

Tully, a father of two who has lived in Canadensis since 2001, said the town in northern Monroe County is usually tranquil except for hunting season. Now he's worried about letting his two daughters, ages 11 and 4, play outside.

"I have enough difficulties in my life already. I don't need this stress."